The TikTok Shop Flywheel: From Chaos to Scalable Brand Awareness

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

TikTok is a tough channel to crack. There are tons of users and virality, but the ad engine isn’t as good as Meta. Plus, there are all sorts of restrictions and challenges around TikTok Shop.

But instead of trying to leverage TikTok as if it were Facebook or Instagram, our goal is to turn it into a brand awareness engine that funds itself.

That means not worrying about maximizing profitability on the channel itself.

Instead, we want to create a system that scales awareness of Obvi across DTC, Amazon, and retail, without lighting a pile of money on fire labeled “brand awareness”. 

Today, we’re sharing how we’re turning TikTok into a self-funding UGC engine that compounds growth across every channel.

On the Menu: 

• The Hidden TikTok Opportunity 

• Our 7-step creator flywheel system 

• How to turn chaos into a growth engine

Join the Operators Room

We’re getting ready to launch our new community.

But we’re not just dumping everyone into a few Slack channels and calling it a day. That’s not really a “community”.

We’re going to actively help you grow your business with:

• Weekly live strategy calls with us (Obvi founders)

• Monthly 1:1 brand deep dives

• Access to Obvi’s playbooks, SOPs, and resources

• Exclusive SaaS discounts + invites to private networking and dinner events

👉🏽 Want to join the waitlist? Apply here

The Hidden TikTok Opportunity

TikTok Shop is messy. It's chaotic. It's constantly changing. But instead of fighting that chaos, we figured out how to harness it. 

You can treat it like a typical digital marketing channel (dollars in, dollars out, ROAS focus). 

And that's totally fine. It can work.

But we think TikTok's unique algorithm and virality create a different opportunity entirely.

🧠 Here's the insight: Because you can drive sales through TikTok Shop, you can scale brand awareness at essentially zero cost. 

The revenue pays for the awareness.

For an omnichannel brand like us, this is incredibly powerful. 

Brand awareness improves results across all our sales channels - Shopify, Amazon, and retail. When someone sees our content on TikTok, they might not buy immediately. 

But when they see us on a Walmart shelf or in a Meta ad later, we're not starting from zero trust.

The TikTok brand awareness flywheel creates: 

• A UGC engine that compounds month over month 

• Millions of impressions with our target audience

• New creative, hooks, and angles that we repurpose across our paid media

• Pre-warmed audiences that convert better on other channels

All while generating revenue that funds the entire operation.

Our 7-step UGC flywheel 

After studying brands doing 8 figures on TikTok Shop, here's the system we're implementing:

Step 1: Cast a Wide Net for Creator Sourcing

We’re pulling from multiple sources to up our creator flow and hit rate: 

• TikTok Shop affiliate center with automated bots

• Insense Platform and AI-powered seeding tools

• Creator Discord communities

• Inbound applications

Volume beats precision in the early stages. You want to test as many creators as possible to find the ones who truly resonate with your brand and audience.

Step 2: Be Generous with Commissions

We offer 25-30% base commission + 10% for Spark Ad revenue. 

Sounds crazy high, but that’s how you stand out in a crowd of brands vying for UGC and motivate creators to make high-quality work.  

Step 3: Simple Testing Process

Our simple process: Send product → Give brief → They post → We boost with GMV Max → Track performance.

We also keep our creative briefs short and to the point:

1. The problem we solve

2. What NOT to say (compliance requirements)

3. 2-3 reference videos

4. Spark code instructions. 

That's it. Over-directing kills the authenticity that makes TikTok content work. Plus, a good creator will know what works better than you do. 

Step 4: Filter Sample Requests for Performance

Once affiliates see success stories, sample requests explode. 

We filter aggressively based on 2 things: posting rate and actual GMV generated.

Creators who post consistently AND drive actual sales get approved for future campaigns. Everyone else gets rejected. 

This step helps us tune the process for performance, not just seeding and output. 

Step 5: Build the Community Flywheel

This is where the magic happens. We created a Discord server with specific channels:

• Winning videos to replicate

• Tips and hooks to test

• Spark code submissions

• Monthly campaign updates

The community becomes self-reinforcing. Creators learn from each other and push each other to perform better.

Step 6: Run Monthly Incentive Campaigns

This tactic was inspired by brands that are killing it, like Goli. 

Example:

• Hit $2K GMV → Win an iPhone 📱

• Hit $10K GMV → Win a vacation 🏝️

This added mega-incentive completely changes creator behavior. 

They post more frequently and genuinely start competing with each other.

Step 7: Spark Everything

We boost every single video with Spark ads using GMV Max. 

Creators love knowing they'll get ad support AND revenue share. 

This helps amplify what's already working organically while gathering data on which content styles perform best in paid environments.

Chew On This Exclusive Community - Apply Now

Are you an ambitious, high-growth founder, leader, or marketer looking for ways to take your brand to the next level?

Apply now for your chance to join a community custom-made to help you find your next growth unlock, and we’ll add you to the waitlist.

How to Turn Chaos Into Your Growth Engine

Here's what the complete flywheel looks like:

More content → More social proof → More sample requests → More creators → Better content → More Spark opportunities → Higher GMV → More campaigns → Repeat

As we build this system, we're seeing: 

• Constant stream of fresh UGC that we repurpose across all channels 

• Sustainable customer acquisition costs on TikTok Shop 

• Top creators feeding proven content concepts back into Meta 

• Self-reinforcing community that requires minimal management

The biggest win = content that works on TikTok Shop often translates well to other platforms. 

We're essentially crowdsourcing our creative testing through the creator community while driving millions of brand impressions. 

🔑 Key principles for thriving in TTS chaos: 

• Volume over precision in the testing phase 

• Community over individual relationships 

• Generous incentives that align creator success with brand success 

• Performance-based filtering to focus resources on what works

🧰 Operator Toolbox

Insense - One of the platforms we’re using to accelerate our TikTok seeding. If you want to run this playbook and don’t have a platform like Insense, you should check it out →

AMT - Their AI Agent Lyra helps us scale our creator outreach. Best of all, they’re continuing to add new features, like personalized messaging. If you’re a high-volume influencer brand, you should try this →

SARAL - Our UGC/influencer management hub. We use SARAL to keep track of our creator relationships, product shipments, creative, and campaigns. Ditch the manual emailing and spreadsheets →

🚨Reminder: We have $250,000 in free AppLovin Credits! We’re starting to run low on these. Fill out this quick form to get yours → 🚨

⭐️ Agency & Vendor Recommendations! We’re introducing brands to our top vendors and partners. Just fill out the linked form and let us know what you’re looking for. Quick connect →

Some of these are referral partners. We only share what we actually use or would recommend to a friend.